Bradley Johnston wins Springboard's Future Chef 2008 title

Bradley Johnston, a 15-year old from Strangford College in Northern Ireland, was today crowned as the winner of Springboard's Future Chef national final 2008.

The eighth Future Chef competition, run by charitable trust Springboard, attracted 7,087 entrants from 583 schools in the UK.

Brian Turner, chairman of Future Chef, revealed the name of the winner following this morning's cook-off competition at Westminster Kingsway College in London.

Johnston cooked roast monkfish tail with confit potatoes, smoked bacon and a wholegrain mustard veloute followed by a baked chocolate tart with orange ice cream to be crowned the best of 12 national finalists.

First runner up was Jonathan Hotchkiss, aged 16 from Arden School in the West Midlands; second runner up Ben McKevitt, also 16, from John O'Gaunt Community College in the south-east of England and third runner-up 14-year old Luke Thomas from Connah's Quay High School in Wales.

John Williams, executive chef at the Ritz was chair of the judges. The panel also included David Everitt-Matthias, chef proprietor at Le Champignon Sauvage; David Mulcahy, craft and food development director of Sodexo UK and Steve Munkley, executive chef at the Royal Garden Hotel.

The panel also included last year's winner Rebecca Toppin who has gone on to become an apprentice at le Manoir aux Quat'Saisons.

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By Christopher Walton

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